HANSON-COX’S SENTENCE CUT

Credits trim 10 months or more from convicted former city councilwoman’s term

Former El Cajon City Councilwoman Jillian Hanson-Cox’s 30-month prison sentence for embezzling more than $3.5 million from the Kearny Mesa company that employed her has been cut by a third.

Hanson-Cox reported to a minimum-security prison camp in Arizona on Jan. 14. She was expected to be released in mid-2015.

Her new release date, adjusted by the federal Bureau of Prisons, is Sept. 17, 2014, and she may serve the last year of her time in a halfway house in San Diego.

Hanson-Cox’s shorter sentence is due to a combination of credits for good behavior and the completion of a 500-hour residential drug program, which was recommended by the trial judge, said Chris Burke, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons.

Burke said officials have not yet determined whether she will be transferred to the halfway house.

“Just because she is eligible doesn’t mean that she is appropriate for release to the halfway house,” said Chris Burke, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons. “This is still being discussed.”

Burke would not say how many credits she earned by completing the drug program, but federal law allows for up to a year of credits.

Court records don’t mention that Hanson-Cox had a drug problem, but her attorney, Charles Sevilla, said that the evidence supporting the judge’s recommendation was in a confidential pre-sentencing report from probation officers.

Sevilla said that prison officials told him that his client would probably be released to a halfway house sometime next year, not this month.

He said that he believed Hanson-Cox didn’t receive any additional considerations from the courts or the prison in terms of her sentence.

“She got nothing extra out of the system that anyone else in her position would have gotten,” Sevilla said.

Hanson-Cox admitted stealing the money from her former employer, Kearny Mesa-based Century Design Inc., where she was the controller.

Her 30-month sentence was two years lower than the 54-month minimum under federal guidelines. Judge Michael Anello said he balanced the severity of her crimes with her support within the community, her swift admission of guilt and her lack of a criminal record.

Members of the Basso family, which founded CDI and unwittingly funded Hanson-Cox’s largesse, said the sentence reduction is bad public policy.

“Think about it: $3.6 million for 14 months in a prison camp and six months in a halfway house,” Barry Basso said. “Then you get to keep most of the illegal personal purchases that were made with stolen money. It’s no wonder that we are seeing more and more embezzlement cases in the news these days.”

Hanson-Cox admitted to spending the stolen money on community causes such as the Mother Goose Parade, which she turned into a Hollywood production between 2007 and 2008, as well as to enrich herself.

Her spending included $67,000 each at Nordstrom and St. John’s Knits, $21,000 on jewelry from Tiffany, $30,000 for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, $30,000 for a Porsche and $170,000 for landscaping and artificial turf for her home.